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Misrepresenting ISKCON

We recently got hold of the name card of one Mani Bushan das, who represents himself to be “Head Priest” at 70-1 Jln Awan Jawa, Taman Yarl, Old Klang Road, 58200 Kuala Lumpur. This is the address for the Society for Krishna Consciousness, Malaysia’s branch of ISKCON, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Sure enough, there on the card is the ISKCON logo, as well as the Hare Krishna mantra, though no mention of the Society’s name.

Mani Bushan generalises his services on the front of the card: “Specialising in Yajna (Fire Sacrifice), Samaskaras (Vedic Rites)”. But what really takes the cake is on the inside: —

Rites performed

Vedic wedding ceremony

Wedding anniversary puja

Special prayers for well-being of the family

Invoking Sri Nrsimhadeva for protection

Invoking the Lord’s blessing upon the family

Moving into new house

Making a place peaceful

Advice before conception of child

Begetting male child

Birth

Safe delivery

Naming ceremony

Smelling of head of child by father

First feeding of grain

Hair parting

Head shaving (first year, third year, fifth year)

Birthday ceremony

Ear piercing

First visit to temple for child

Continuing well protection of the child

Mantras for the protection of the child

Commencing of school/studies

Graduation from school, college and university

Last rites

Is that all? I think he left out blessing of vehicles, exorcising ghosts, onset of girl’s first period, shop opening, vastu shastra (feng shui), shraddha (should be at least 2 dozen shraddha ceremonies to ensure the deceased will rip) and a few others.

Why does this remind me of the guys who go around extorting protection money? To be fair, Mani Bushan’s name card doesn’t say anything about fees or donations. Maybe he’s a true saint and is offering all these services for free out of the compassion of his holy heart?

But this brings us back to wonder what makes Mani Bushan so qualified? Where has he picked up these skills, and how can we be sure he won’t get his spells and mantras mixed up? As far as we are aware, ISKCON’s Founder-Acharya never introduced any of these things to his disciples.

Quite the contrary. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami (known to his disciples as Srila Prabhupada) taught unequivocally that the materialistic rites and rituals of the Vedas are irrelevant in the lives of devotees who simply depend on the mercy of the Supreme Lord and offer their lives to serve Krishna without expectation of any material return.

Now, Mani Bushan is not the first, nor the last to go around proffering his dubious expertise. Over the last 10 years or more we have seen a proliferation of “head priests” and the like in ISKCON and IRM also, hitting up the Indian communities in India, S.E. Asia and even parts of America wherever Indians congregate at ISKCON temples. Apparently there is plenty of money to be made in this way.

But is it not a great disservice to the public and to the mission of Srila Prabhupada? Srila Prabhupada dedicated all his time, energy, manpower and material resources to broadcast the message of Lord Chaitanya, freely distributing the holy names, the only solution for the multifarious problems that besiege the planet and especially the human race. He did not come to sell a product and make profit. He came to give, not exploit.

The public might not be expected to grasp the contradiction here, but we say shame on the so-called devotees who seek to take advantage of people’s ignorance. Is it not fraud and deception to pose as their well-wishers while at the same time perpetuating their mistaken attachment to materialistic solutions, which for all appearances are framed in religiosity but actually cannot relieve them from their troubles?

Are devotees in ISKCON not mindful what the acronym stands for? International Society for Krishna consciousness. Prabhupada came out from India to present Krishna to the whole world. He didn’t come to preach some sectarian Hindu worship of a Hindu god. Before Srila Prabhupada came, practically no one outside of India could penetrate the mysteries of the Hindu world. But Srila Prabhupada was able to do what no one else had done: he de-Hinduised and de-mystified the science of Krishna consciousness, and introduced a scientific, step-by-step process that anyone can follow and by so doing become purified and become actually Krishna conscious. Srila Prabhupada left us with a legacy of more than 160 published works, all of which he tirelessly slaved over in order to present Krishna consciousness in a rational way to men of reason.

So we are disappointed, dismayed that ISKCON (and IRM) are in the business of re-Hinduizing and re-mystifying the mission. It’s one thing to make a cultural presentation of Krishna consciousness, showcasing the vast scope of the Vedic literatures and how meticulously every aspect of life in Vedic society was contrived to evoke God consciousness in the day-to-day lives of everyone; but it’s another thing altogether for a person who claims to be either a disciple of Prabhupada or of ISKCON to sell the Vedic rites and rituals and try to pass them off as cure-alls like snake oil medicine on a street corner. This kind of misrepresentation engenders a culture of irrational faith over common sense inquiry. Instead of raising the awareness of people to change their consciousness and life style, devotees like Mani Bushan lead people to believe that the answer is one of the remedial measures he advertises, and his clientele fling their brains out the window, confident that the “holy priest” surely knows how to make it work by his supposed spiritual potency or shakti.

Certainly the Vedic rites and rituals are effective (when correctly performed), but they are prescriptions for persons who are materially inclined. Akin to the practice of medicine that treats only the symptoms. Srila Prabhupada practiced holistic medicine—he gave the wholesale solution, and for devotees to give anything less than this is to sell the public short.

In Srila Prabhupada’s own words:

Translation
“We have just begun the performance of this fruitive activity, a sacrificial fire, without certainty of its result due to the many imperfections in our action. Our bodies have become black from the smoke, but we are factually pleased by the nectar of the lotus feet of the Personality of Godhead, Govinda, which you are distributing.”

PURPORT
The sacrificial fire kindled by the sages of Naimisharanya was certainly full of smoke and doubts because of so many flaws. The first flaw is that there is an acute scarcity of expert brahmanas able to carry out such performances successfully in this age of Kali. Any discrepancy in such sacrifices spoils the whole show, and the result is uncertain, like agricultural enterprises. The good result of tilling the paddy field depends on providential rain, and therefore the result is uncertain. Similarly, performance of any kind of sacrifice in this age of Kali is also uncertain. Unscrupulous greedy brahmanas of the age of Kali induce the innocent public to such uncertain sacrificial shows without disclosing the scriptural injunction that in the age of Kali there is no fruitful sacrificial performance but the sacrifice of the congregational chanting of the holy name of the Lord. Suta Gosvami was narrating the transcendental activities of the Lord before the congregation of sages, and they were factually perceiving the result of hearing these transcendental activities. One can feel this practically, as one can feel the result of eating food. Spiritual realization acts in that way.

The sages of Naimisharanya were practically sufferers from the smoke of a sacrificial fire and were doubtful about the result, but by hearing from a realized person like Suta Gosvami, they were fully satisfied. In the Brahma-vaivarta Purana, Vishnu tells Shiva that in the age of Kali, men full of anxieties of various kinds can vainly labor in fruitive activity and philosophical speculations, but when they are engaged in devotional service, the result is sure and certain, and there is no loss of energy. In other words, nothing performed for spiritual realization or for material benefit can be successful without the devotional service to the Lord. — Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.18.12, text and purport by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Mani Bushan gave this card to a shopowner in Malacca sometime within the last 2 months, and at the same time planted a donation box in her shop. A friend of ours saw the donation box, and she handed over the card to him. He in turn passed it along to us. So this is going on right now. Somewhere out there Mani Bushan and his kind are going about presenting themselves as ISKCON devotees and selling something that ISKCON doesn’t endorse. They might be at your door step now. So look out!